Fruits of Chaos
by TawakeNix
Summary: A kunoichi joins Shikamaru's platoon of the Sasuke's Retrieval mission. After being reunited with one of the Sound 4 members, her once perturbing dream with a mysterious, yet familiar, young man in it now... summary continuation inside, please read R&R.
1. Headache

Good day, everyone. Here's the rewritten chapter one. This was made two years ago and I think I've edited it before, like several months ago but I know I didn't do good so now I'm gonna take the time to rewrite and edit (again, only better this time) all the typos, grammar and whatnot for a clearer and more understandable story. I hope you guys enjoy

**Summary:** A kunoichi joins Shikamaru's platoon of the Sasuke's Retrieval mission. After being reunited with one of the Sound 4 members, her once perturbing dream with a mysterious, yet familiar, young man in it now served as a sign in the reality of her unraveling unconsciously lost and long forgotten memory. Sound stories, not necessarily good, not necessarily very serious. (Summary sounds serious but believe me it's not)

**WARNING:** Possible slight crack, slight OOC, WAFF, mature language, randomness and unexpected events.

**Genre:** General, (possible) romance, friendship, humor, corny drama

* * *

**Fruits of Chaos**

**Chapter 1: Headache**

_In a dream…_

A peaceful village, surrounded by tall trees, called Konoha was, as usual every night, enveloped in the relaxing cold air and the silent yet entrancing rustling of the nature around them. The tranquility shattered like glasses on the floor when a screech from a small, unlit, hidden behind many other homesteads was perceived.

"Please, go away! No-- Don't! Don't touch her, please!" A young lad, with grayish-blue tainted hair, desperately beseeched a tall shadowy figure hovering over him. Fear and rage filled him, as it was apparent in his wide, tearful eyes.

"This child…" The moonlight illuminated the dark room and caught the glint of bright, yellow, malevolent serpent eyes. Both youngsters stared in dread at the man's deathly pale face revealed by the moonlight. The dark clouds floating in the sky veiled and uncloaked the moon continuously throwing shadows and light dancing on his ashen face.

"No… p-please…" A young girl whispered almost inaudibly shuddering at the corner of the room. The man stepped gently towards the girl as she reflexively pushed her back against the wall in fear. The lad shot his head to the side with fearful eyes, looking at the young girl and slowly up to the creature. He scrambled towards her, grabbing her arm and pulling her into tight, protective hug. The 'being' strode slowly forward, casting a shadow over them with a slight chuckle drenched in nothing but pure malice.

He hung his head enough to hide his face and as quickly and silently as possible, whispered, "Let's run for it." He stood up and pulled her forcefully to the back door. He slammed it open and dashed a few meters away. He looked back and to his horror found out that they have not gone far enough with their little legs as he could see the man walk slowly out of the door, laughing dementedly.

He pulled and pushed her towards him, flapping his hands in and out in front of him gesturing her desperately to keep running.

"Run! Keep running!" He shouted.

"But I--" Her little eyes enlarged, terror written all over her face, as she looked over at the back of the boy whose body was already frozen out of panic and fear.

"What an endearing sight." The man hissed with a bone-chilling and harsh voice.

"Moriko, run!" The boy shooed her away with his arms as the girl, Moriko, steped back a little.

"What about you--"

" Run!!" He shouted angrily at her that scared her more.

With her mind already messed up more than possible, she turned around with only guilt and regret empowering her to escape. She ran no matter how much she stumbled and staggered. Even as she gasped for air, she didn't stop running until her legs couldn't move a muscle anymore. Unbeknownst to her was the boy she left behind smiling at her slowly disappearing figure before putting on his bravest mask and turning around to face the purple eye shadowed snake orbs.

Falling down on the tall grasses, Moriko squeezed the last bit of her strength to fight for air. She completely felt herself get paralyzed when she heard a heart-wrenching wail echo in the forest. She wanted to kill herself for what she had done but she couldn't even move her numb legs. Throwing her back on the ground, she reluctantly closed her eyes slowly and wished that she would never wake from that slumber.

* * *

"Mm… sss… Sa…?" Moriko murmured in her sleep trying to make a word, or rather probably a name, unconsciously in her sleep.

"Moriko, wake up!" Roughly waking up to the loud voice opening the door with a slam on the wall.

"What? Eh… Shizune?" Moriko opened her eyes slightly, and brought her hand up to her head grasping it.

"Hey, I said wake up!" Shizune stomped across the semi-messy room, walking directly towards her bed.

"Damn it, she's so loud… it's giving me a headache." She pulled muttered while pulling the sheets over her head.

"Morikoooo, wake up. Tsunade-sama is calling you." Shizune whined over the girl. Annoyed, she grabbed a pillow and hit her head a couple of times.

"Alright, okay! I'm awake." She pushed herself up groggily and stared at Shizune blankly for several seconds before falling back on the bed.

"Tsch." Shizune sighed and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her violently. "Moriko, you need to wake up. It's very urgent."

"God, she won't stop." Moriko thought as she felt like all those shaking was gonna make her foam in the mouth.

"Fine, I'm awake now." Moriko stated in an annoyed tone, slapping Shizune's hands away. "So where is she?" She asked as she jumped out of her bed, trudging towards her bathroom.

"In her office." Shizune replied as a matter-of-factly.

"She wouldn't mind if I take bath first, right?" She asked again as she started stripping off her pajamas.

"Just get in there and get your ass in her office in 15 minutes." Shizune rolled her eyes and stepped out of the room and muttering, "That girl seriously has no shame."

* * *

"I wonder what's taking her so long." The Godaime tapped her fingers on her desk feeling more impatient than usual. Just a few seconds later, she heard three booming knocks on her door.

"Finally. Come in!" She shouted from the inside. Tsunade watched her carefully as she opened the door laxly and close it behind her with a loud thud. "So… Shizune-nee told me that you called me?" She asked as she walked towards Tsunade's desk.

"What took you so long?" Tsunade answered with her own question.

"I had to take a bath Tsunade-nee. Gomen ne" She grinned sheepishly in attempt to not say in a rather annoying way.

"Moriko, I told you, you can't address me like that in public." Tsunade sighed.

"But no one's here." Moriko looked around the spacious office to make sure and then back again to the beautiful old lady. Tsunade stared at her and then blinked. She sighed again and pushed the subject behind her mind.

"Well, anyways. I called you because I want to inform you that you're joining Shikamaru's platoon and will take action in about…" Tsunade paused and checked her wrist watch. "… 20 minutes."

"For what?" Moriko raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"Haven't you heard?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow at her. "Heard what?" Moriko asked obviously oblivious about the news of a particular genin leaving Konoha last night. "Sasuke left last night to go to Orochimaru. And so I asked Shikamaru to gather a few shinobi to create a platoon that he thinks will suit perfectly in pursuing the Uchiha."

"And? I'm sure his platoon is strong enough, considering that it's Shikamaru who's controlling it. I don't think they need an extra shinobi like me to join them. Plus… I just came from a mission last night." Moriko applied a whining tone in her last sentence hoping that Tsunade would let her slip on this one though she knew that Tsunade wouldn't consider such a childish request on a serious mission.

"I want you to join them so they can have a medic-nin with them. It's not that I'm saying they can't handle it on their own but one chuunin and four genins going against Orochimaru's henchmen is not a comforting thought. His underlings are much tougher than they look like so I thought maybe a medic-nin would be necessary for this."

"Am I the only medic-nin joining them?" Tsunade nodded. "What if I get killed first? Isn't that a waste?" Tsunade kicked against her desk and placed her feet at the edge. "Nah!" She said with a carefree grin. "A-are you saying you don't mind losing one kunoichi?!" Tsunade laughed as Moriko's anxiety grew over the thought of getting killed first. Tsunade clapped her hands and stood, an aura of confidence emanating from the female Sannin.

"There's no time to waste. Come, let's catch up with them in the gates before they leave." Moriko nodded with a determined face. "Right."

_If I want to come back alive, then I'll just simply not die. _Moriko thought and grinned to herself stupidly.

* * *

"We've already lost some time." Shikamaru said as he glanced on his wrist watch.

"Naruto… arigatou." Sakura asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. Naruto only smiled endearingly as his reply.

"Let's go!" Shikamaru ordered everyone.

"Halt!" Everyone looked back to see Tsunade walking towards them with Moriko.

"Tsunade baa-chan? What do you want?" Naruto asked in that usual Naruto tone which Tsunade always find a little annoying. "Take her with you." Stating that the girl beside her was the one she's talking about.

"We're fine on our own. It's a dangerous mission Moriko and I know you'd rather hang around here and drag your lazy bum around the village." Kiba smirked as Akamaru barked in approval.

"I know, right? I still feel tired from my last mission. I just--" Moriko was cut off with a small cough from Tsunade. She mentally sweat dropped and quickly replace what she was saying with something else. "I mean-- don't get too confident, Kiba. I may be lazy but I train a lot too so I can catch up with everyone!"

"I think you all know the reason why I want her to come with you guys." Everyone nodded and Tsunade looked down at Moriko. "And you, make sure you're always out of trouble. Take care of yourself during battle. Putting your life in danger will risk everyone else's life as well. Don't be a burden, understood?" Moriko nodded, "Hai!"

"There's no time to lose let's go." Shikamaru noted. "Go!" Tsunade threw her arm in the air with that order.

* * *

Rewritten: April 22, 2008

Yes, yes. I edited it and I know it's not any better. Okay, maybe it is but just a little. Despite the little improvement of this chapter, I do hope you guys enjoyed it since I put lots of my time and effort in this job. I had no idea it would take me this long to rewrite a chapter (4 hours or so, stupid and slow, yes)

Anyway, please leave a review because reviews are love xD


	2. Unnoticed Reunion

This fic is composed of little scenarios from the real episodes of the Sasuke Retrieval era and my own story (but that's only from chapter 1-8) so don't be surprised to read a familiar a part in the story.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Unnoticed Reunion**

Yo, folks! Moriko Azami here. Let me introduce myself since I am the main character of this fanfic—No, I am not saying I'm the main character of the story, that role goes to Naruto, thus the name. Although I'd beg to differ because I, The Great Moriko Azami, is a young kunoichi, residing in Konohagakure. Young, smart, powerful beautiful, and drop dead gorgeous, so c'mon Naruto producers! Juuust kidding. I'm the total opposite of all that so don't expect me to go into details.

Moving on, I have a bloodline limit that lets me control the length of my hair and the nature. Blue streaks will appear on my boring black hair whenever I use it. What does my hair do you ask? It can grow it as long as I want as long as I have enough chakra and strength to carry it. Hairs are heavier than they look like 'ya know. In battle, it lengthens until it captures the enemy and then emits a pleasantly sweet gas which puts them in a, somehow, trance like state, it's like a genjutsu in a way, letting them unconsciously breathe the actually dangerous poison gas. 'Tis produce by yours truly my sweet strawberry-passion shampoo. OKAY, I'M JOKING.

Now about the nature I was blabbing about. I can control the "fragrance" and mood of the nature. Sometimes, yes just sometimes, the nature changes a little according to my mood. But it's not a dramatic change that causes something like the sudden death of all trees or something stupid like that.

* * *

They haven't covered more than ten miles yet even with their shunshin jutsu and the usual leap from tree to tree thing but Kiba had already sensed something as his nose twitched in sync with Akamaru's.

"Shikamaru." Neji looked at Kiba, sensing the change in his voice.

"What's wrong Kiba?" Shikamaru turned his head to his canine friend

"I can smell blood nearby. There are two of them. What should we do?" The group came to halt as Shikamaru faced them on another tree branch.

"If it smells like blood, that means a battle had taken over."

"Maybe we should check Shikamaru? They might be injured." Moriko said, as expected from a medic-nin.

"No, if we go there we might see other _things_. And we're not even sure if those are the enemies, allies, which I doubt, or a random unfortunate passerby." He said calmly before moving again.

"But the people there, they might--" Moriko stopped as she looked into Shikamaru's sleepy yet strict eyes. Bearing in mind that Shikamaru, the indolent genius, was the leader, she knew she had no right to stray away from his orders and their mission and especially because what he said was right.

"If we don't get Sasuke back in this coverage area then he might be out of the Fire territory already." Neji informed everyone with his usual calm tone.

"It means they're alert, we have to change the scouting position."

"Hey! The enemy's scent is all over the place!!" Kiba's eyes narrowed as his muscles tensed.

"Everyone, stop!" Shikamaru ordered raising his arms to his side. "Look up." Shikamaru pointed at one of many huge trees surrounding them. " An explosive seal," He said, "They've set up a trap." He continued. "A total of 5, its a barrier." Neji said looking around.

"Tsch, we have to go around it then." And so they did go around it even though it wasted a bit of their time.

"Hey, look at this guys." Moriko said bending down to the ground pointing at a string. "It looks cool." She thought simplemindedly and mentally slapped herself for that.

"It's a trap. Be careful everyone, if we step on one of these, we're dead."

"Oi! Naruto, you better watch where you're going." Kiba teased.

"I know! I know, tsch." Naruto clicked his tongue before he realized he was about to step on of the said traps.

"Naruto! Look out!" Moriko blurted out, pointing at the glinting wire at the ground.

"Wait, Naruto!" Chouji shouted as he began throwing more chips in his mouth, beads of sweat rolling down his flushed cheeks.

"Good thing I'm fast. Kage mane no jutsu…" Shikamaru sighed. _Why am I always the one saving other people's butt? _He thought closing his eyes and relazing his nerves. _Being the leader is troublesome._

"Naruto! I told you to be careful!"

* * *

After dealing with all the commotion, Moriko walked around their area, leaving the group a few meters away from her, and checked to see if there were any signs of the enemy. Moriko was about to head back as the boys finally figured out a plan to ambush their enemies unbeknownst to them that their enemies had ambushed _them_ already.

Springing out of the nearby trees were the members of the Sound 4. One of them, a rather large one, was carrying a barrel while everyone was else was carrying a distinct and evil mocking look.

Kiba, Chouji, and Naruto were easily assaulted but not Moriko. She sensed the commotion going on and decided to sneak up upon them. Moriko's gears started turning as she saw the plump Oto-nin place a barrel on the ground.

"Doro Doumu (mud dome)" The large nin calmly chanted as the ground start to shake a little.

_I hope she doesn't do anything rash._ Shikamaru thought looking down at the ground enveloping the five of them inside a cave of hardened soil.

Moriko watched the movements of her enemies intently, wiping her sweat from her face with the back of her hand. She watched and tried to think of a plan knowing that as long as Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Chouji and Kiba were trapped inside the dome, she was all alone in the battlefield.

_Moriko, get that half-assed brain working! What would Shikamaru do in this situation? _She broke into cold sweat, her heart thumping loudly against her chest. _Don't panic, dammit! Think!_

_Hey, Moriko!_ A voice spoke out of the blue with evident childish features.

_What the--? _Moriko turned her gaze to the Sound 4. They didn't show any signs of hearing any voice so she assumed she was the only who could hear it. Her cat-eyes narrowed, her brow furrowing over it with a frown.

_Who are you? Show yourself! _She demanded in her thoughts hoping that the voice heard it. _Heh, wish I could but it's too early for that._

_What do you mean? _The frown in her face faded as a look of confusion superseded her previous expression. _Are you… in a way, inside me? _Moriko asked with a tinged of anxiety in her voice.

_Hm, yeah, I guess. But before asking me redundant questions like that, shouldn't you be busying yourself trying to save your comrades?_

_You're right. _Moriko blinked looking at her enemies once again who were talking about something she obviously couldn't hear. _But I… don't know what to do. _She clenched her fist into a ball, and sat slowly on the ground causing the bushes to rustle a little.

"Hm?" Kidomaruu looked over at the bunch of bushes behind him. "What's wrong?" He turned to see his two-headed teammate. "I don't think everyone's inside that dome. I think we missed one more shinobi." Sakon raised an eyebrow at the spider-nin. "What?"

"Or maybe it's just me. I thought I felt a movement in my spider web over there." Kidomaru answered, nodding his head at the bush.

_I can't think of anything to do! I wish Shikamaru was here… _Moriko gritted her teeth before sighing inside. _I can't attack. There's too many of them and they look pretty strong too. I can't sneak up on the barrel as well since they're surrounding it. My genjutsu might not work seeing as how they have power over sound. I'm sure there's a genjutsu user among them._

_You're just being a coward. _The voice said in lazy yet mocking voice.

_I'm not! I'm just trying to be safe. If I could, I would've jumped out there already! I don't wanna endanger my team's safety by getting in the way of harm._

_But you know, sneaking or attacking up on them is worth a shot._

_It's not as easy it sounds. _Moriko grabbed a handful of leaves from the bush she was hiding in out of exasperation, not noticing the complicatedly patterned web attached to it and to another bush.

Kidomaru turned his attention to the bush again, catching a glint of his silky web. He felt his fingers move as the bush made a small rustling motion. There was a thread attached to fingers and the other end attached to his web. Unfortunately for Moriko, each time she made a movement caused the bush to shake a little, including the spider-human made goassamer attached to it to quiver as well and send the vibes to Kidomaruu's fingers.

_I told you—WHAT THE--?! _Moriko shot a look down her waist to see that it was tied with milky colored threads intertwined with each other forming a thicker twine. She looked at both of her arms simultaneously as she felt the slap of the same twine flung around them. A split second after that, she quickly found herself being pulled out of the bush violently before knocking her back against someone's lean chest.

_Well shit, they got me. And I was totally camouflaged too. _Moriko cursed while struggling to get out of the vice-like grip that cut the blood circulation in her wrists. She twisted her body as the aggressor tugged her hands behind her back with brute force and then putting his other free arm around her neck to lessen her squirming.

"We seem to have missed you earlier when your companions were thrown inside Jiroubo's dome." The nin behind her spoke, his voice cold and filled with murderous intent.

"Hoo… You're pretty cute huh?" Kidomaru smirked, running the sharp edge of the kunai on her cheek. Moriko winced as she felt the cold metal slice her skin and her blood slowly dripping down to her chin. "You're so cute that it disgusts me!" He yelled slightly in her face.

"Shut up, spider freak! At least I'M normal and YOU'RE not! No girl would ever fall for a guy with six arms." Tayuya smirked at this. She'd always thought that Kidomaru would live his life single forever, scaring away all the girls that would meet him. Not that he was gonna live for a very long time considering that he was living under Orochimaru's fangs. Kidomaru scowled at this.

"Let Shikamaru and the others go!" _Stupid! Where the hell did that come from? Of course they're not gonna let them go! _Moriko mentally slapped her forehead, cursing herself for her idiocracy.

"Sakon, let's kill her. NOW." Kidomaru's eye twitched as he stared at Sakon, the nin holding Moriko tightly in his grasp, then at Moriko with raging eyes. _Crap. Am I gonna die now?_

Scenes of her recurring, violent dream materialized in her mind as she tried to envision the young boy who had been trying to protect her throughout the whole dream. He was always there, protecting her, and saving her all the time at the end of her nightmare and yet he always seemed like a haze.

Moriko knew, somehow, that that boy and the scary man existed in real life. She didn't know how but each time she woke up, she felt one step closer to them both. She knew she had an unexplainable desire in her heart to meet the boy, she'd always wished for that day to come and she was determined to find him one day and find out herself if he only lived in her dreams, or rather, her nightmares.

"Say your prayers, brat. I intended to keep you alive for a while but insulting my MOST charming points are just goddamn annoying." Kidomaru said causing Moriko to wake from her short stupor.

Tayuya snorted, "Charming points? Whatever dickhead, that ain't true." Kidomaru rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Moriko. "End of the line." He said with a smirk.

_So, please God. I really do wanna find that person so keep me alive! I have no intentions of meeting him up there 'cause that mean I'm seriously gonna die. I can't die. I have many dreams yet to be fulfilled! _Moriko obviously took Kidomaru's advice to heart and thought it was a nice distraction from her fear of being killed.

Sakon raised his arm that was hung around Moriko's neck and waved a finger at Kidomaru. "Don't forget we're on a mission. There's no time to play." Sakon reminded him with a mocking smile. "Tsch, fine." Kidomaru replied with a disappointed tone while carrying the barrel on his back. _He's one to talk. That stupid, green lipstick wearing, gay-ass. Him and his superiority complex._

"What do we do with her, Sakon?" Tayuya asked, nodding at Moriko.

"Dispose of her, of course." Sakon answered with a lopsided smirk. "But we'll waste time on doing that so I'm letting Jiroubo handle her." He said turning his head to the fat fellow.

_Sakon? Huh, sounds familiar…Why do I suddenly feel like I want to see his face? _Moriko felt a strange sensation of nostalgia wash over her as she remembered her dream unconsciously. She turned her head slightly in an attempt to steal a glance from the boy behind her but failed to do so as she was pushed down on Jirobo's feet.

"Let's go." Sakon said firmly as his two other companions nodded.

_Scent Marking Technique! _Moriko smiled to herself. _Now, they'll be easy to track with Kiba and Akamaru's nose._

"Hello, appetizer." Moriko looked up to meet black chinky eyes. She scrambled on the other side of the dome behind him and banged on it like crazy. "Shikamaru?"

"Moriko? Thank God, you're alive." Shikamaru sighed in relief inside.

"I'll fend off this fat ass cannibal and you guys try to get out of there ASAP. The other left already with Sasuke." She instructed as she watched Jirobo slowly walking towards her. "Don't worry, it's not your body, it's your chakra." Moriko's eyes narrowed. "Hurry! He's after my chakra!"

"Don't turn your back on your enemy." Moriko turned around and everything was black.

* * *

**Rewritten: April 23, 2008**

So the ending was kinda lame because Moriko didn't even get to fight but I thought this chapter was long enough and it'll confuse both the readers and me if I add a fighting scene and whatnot.

Reviews are love, people so keep 'em coming because they encourage me a lot to keep this story going 8D


	3. Sub Rosa

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Sub Rosa**

"Oh God…ugh… head…" Moriko groaned groggily, clutching her head.

"Moriko-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked, leaning closer to her face.

"No, I'm not okay. I think I got a concussion." She said, knocking her head a little with her knuckles. Moriko looked around. "Huh? Where are we? What happened to the plus-sized guy?"

"Oh, don't worry. Chouji is handling him right now." Shikamaru said with a smile. A doubtful smile.

"Chouji? I should go back to him. What if he gets hurt?" She struggled and realized she was riding someone's back. She stared at thr long hair in front of her and the pale arms that were wrapped around her legs behind him. "Thanks, Neji. You can put me down now."

"Mm." Everyone paused as Neji carefully let her off of his back and onto the ground.

"What do we do from here on, Shikamaru?" Moriko asked, trying to keep her balance on the tree branch.

"Chase our enemies." He replied nonchalantly.

"We won't stop until we get Sasuke back. That's what I promised to Sakura-chan." Naruto said in a determined face before punching a fist in the air. Everyone looked at him strangely.

"Yeah, yeah. We know, Naruto. You and your promises." Kiba teased.

"Back to the mission, guys. I'm pretty sure they haven't gotten that far yet. They're probably within 100 or 200-meter radius. Neji?" Neju nodded at him and activated his Byakugan.

"Byakugan!" Everyone kept silent as Neji turned his head from side to side, carefully scanning the entire area. A minute later, the veins on Neji's temples disappeared. "No traps, Shikamaru."

"I have a plan."

* * *

"Oi, Jiroubo! What took you so long?" Tayuya asked, noticing that Jirobo had already catched up behind them.

"Sorry. The girl was a bit of a distraction. It took some time to--"

"Fatass! Don't waste time. Hurry up and carry the barrel. That's your job, you peice of shit." Tayuya cursed as she passed the barrel to Kidomaru.

"Alright." The three remaining sound-nins stared at each other then glared at Jiroubo.

"What's wrong with you? You seem to be very obedient today, huh?" Tayuya smirked.

"What do you mean?" Jirobo turned his attention away from the barrel and onto Tayuya.

"I can't hand this to you." Kidoumaru said as she threw the barrel back to Tayuya. "Since you're not Jiroubo!"

"Let me handle this." Kidomaru smirked and nodded off Sakon and Tayuya.

With a poof, Jirobo was gone. The smoke cleared out and revealed the lazy genius crouching on the tree branch.

"Jiroubo never forgets to warn Tayuya about her foul mouth." Kidoumaru spread out his four extra arms, signaling another fight.

"Heh, I see." Shikamaru smirked giving him a small test with a kick, which Kidomaru easily blocked with his arms. As he blocked the blow with first arm, he used his second arm to grab Shikamaru's feet and fling him like an object.

"Ninpou, kumo shibari! " (Ninja art, Spider web bind)

"What the--?!"

"Ninpou, kumo soukai! " (Ninja art, Spider opening)

Kidomaru turned to look at his captured enemies. A bunch of Naruto's clones were stuck on his gigantic lattice and Neji, and the others on the other hand, was stuck inside a human cocoon. Kidomaru smirked in excitement as he threw several kunais simultaneously at Naruto's bunshins. As the smoke cleared out, Kidomaru's smirk grew widers as he could see only one Naruto left.

"So only one left huh?" He threw a kunai at him and to his surprise, the real Naruto he assumed to be disappeared with a poof. "What the–?!" His eyes widened and looked around swiftly looking for the real one.

"Neji? How did you--? Hey, thanks." Naruto turned as his cerulean eyes met with those light lavender, pupil-less ones. He saw himself out of danger, for the moment, and into the safe grasp of his comrade.

"No, thank you for giving me enough time." Naruto's bunshins were enough distraction to stall Kidomaru. While he was busy launching kunais on Naruto's copies, Neji had taken the chance to cut through Kidomaru's chakra-made cocoon with his own sharp, thread-like chakra.

"Huh?" Kidomaru turned around to see that all of them had sneakily vamoosed his web.

"Now, go! I'll handle this." Neji stared penetratingly at his opponent. He felt like he was gonna face a tough challenge on this one.

"A-are you sure?" Shikamaru got into slight a tizzy. He got worried; knowing that Chouji hasn't even returned yet, Neji may not too.

"Shikamaru, I want to stay with him this time. I'll be out if the way if Neji wants to fight him alone. I just want to ensure his safety." Moriko reasoned out and looked pleadingly in Shikamaru's eyes who shook his head in disagreement. Moriko sighed inwardly.

"No, you will stay with us."

"But-"

"If you want the safety of the team, then don't you think three people are more important than one?" Moriko stared at her teammates and realized that he was right. She knew she shouldn't be selfish and stick with only person, knowing that she was suppose to help protect the team, not an individual.

"Let's go!"

"Hey, wait! Takku!" Moriko called out but did they not stop, thinking that she'll probably catch up with them within a second. "Hey, I said wait!" Moriko threw her fan at Shikamaru, hitting him square on the head, who looked backed at her with an irked expression on his face.

"Shikamaru, wait. Neji, your hand please." Neji looked at her curiously as he held his hand out. Moriko put a hand above his, emitting a green chakra around it. "I wanted to replace the chakra you used a while ago to free us. There." Moriko grinned then winked at him. "Don't die, okay? Or else you'll make Tenten cry!" Neji smiled slightly to himself as Moriko waved before catching up with the others.

"Let's go." Shikamaru could only pray and hope that both Chouji and Neji will come back to them complete and alive.

* * *

"Moriko?" Naruto bent down and looked below Moriko's face. "Oi Morikooooo You're spacing out, is something wrong?" Naruto waved his hand at her face, wondering about her peculiar behavior.

"Huh? What were you asking?" She blinked and woke herself up from her short stupor.

"I was asking if you brought food with you."

"Uh… No, I didn't bring any-- HE DID IT!!" She blurted and shot a happy look at Naruto before slapping him hard on the back.

"Huh?! Who did what?" Kiba quirked an eyebrow as he exchanged looks with Akamaru "Arf!! arf!"

"Yes, you're right Akamaru. Neji finally brought down that Oto-nin." Kiba smiled as he patted Akamaru's head and exchanged glances with Moriko who grinned at him.

"He did? Neji is still alive… right?" Shikamaru eyed the two with a fretting look. "Don't worry Shikamaru, he's definitely alive." Moriko beamed her remarkable goofy, Cheshire cat-like grin. Shikamaru finally felt relieved and felt like he could give a relaxed smile.

"How did you know, Moriko? Akamaru and I can tell because of our noses but you… Did you understand what Akamaru said just now?"

"Actually, I really didn't understand what Akamaru said." She grinned sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. A habit she got from Naruto and Sakura. Idiots. If only they weren't in a tree, they would've fallen down already. But that's dangerous, so they decided to stick with sweatdrops.

"Right. Then how come you know he's alive?" Kiba continued to interrogate her.

"That's because I've marked them with the Scent Marking Technique. Can't you and Akamaru smell it" Kiba nodded. " I see. Earlier, I could smell two kinds of a whiff scent. The first one smelled redolent and the other one really stank. It's been bothering me but the stinky smell disappeared slowsly and the only thing I can smell now is a faint redolent in the air."

"That's right. The sweet scent was Neji and the stinky one was the Oto-nin. His scent must've vanished because he's… well, probably, dead. I can still smell Neji's, but it's kind of faint so I'm worried. I'm pretty sure he's badly injured, if we don't get back to him--"

"You're pretty useful aren't you, Moriko?" Kiba and Naruto smirked. " Useful?" Moriko snapped. "What the hell? Do you think I'm some kind of object?!" Veins popped out as she yelled at them.

"I actually meant that as a compliment…" Naruto grinned. "Well, you could've rephrased it into something that doesn't sound insulting!" Naruto sweatdropped as she stuck out her tongue.

"But I was wondering, where'd you get all those techniques Moriko-chan?" Naruto asked, arousing everyone else's curiosity.

"Uhm… ah, you don't need to know." She started to twiddle her fingers against each other. _Dammit, I must've gotten this from Hinata_ she thought. She wondered why she's often easily influenced by the people around her when it comes to habits.

"Why not?"

"Because--! Just because I don't want to. Hmph." The three stared at each other, even more curious.

"Arf! arf!" Akamaru barked. "Oh yeah, she's hiding something alright." Kiba smirked.

"Really? Well, we'll find that out sooner or later." Naruto laughed evilly at the high-strung Moriko.

" Well, hey Kiba, I'll tell you now that you will not--"

"Really? Trust me, I will." Kiba's smirked widened and gave Moriko the urge to punch him right through his face and call him a "flea-bag". _Cocky little bastard_. She thought, sighing.

"Fine, wanna bet?"

"Sure. I'll find out what that secret is anyway. So let's see… how 'bout, you do all the work for us for three days straight?" Naruto cheered and Shikamaru smirked.

"Fine, then. But if you don't find that out after this mission, all four of you, including Akamaru, will be my lovely menservants for a whole week. And no complaining allowed!"

"A week?!" Naruto exclaimed. Shikamaru sighed and mumbled a "How troublesome…", Kiba glared at her. "That's not fair, compared to only three days." Moriko grinned evilly out of amusement. "I offered the bet and I won't go back on my words. And guys doesn't do that either." She teased with a matching taunting finger in his face. Kiba frowned then smirked, "Fine. It's a deal." Moriko's grin grew wider. _It's fun being a girl. _"Yep. It's a deal alright."

And then, the infamous awkward silence came over the group. Shikamaru then remembered a question he had always wanted to ask.

"Hey, Moriko. I heard you call Godaime-sama and Shizune-sensei ane once. Why is that?"

"Ah… well…"

**- Flashback -**

"_Tsunade-nee, Shizune-nee," Moriko called out as she spread her hands wide open for both women to see. The two smiled and took the herbs that they have asked for from her open hands._

"_Moriko, we keep telling you that you can't call us that out in the public." Shizune reminded her ever so gently._

"_Why not?"_

"_Because people might think you have no manners openly calling us like that. I'm the Godaime remember?" Tsunade explained slowly._

"_But people know we hold a special relationship with each other, surely they'd expect something like that right?"_

"_Well, gossips are born from issues like that. Whether you like it or not, you will not is address us like that. It's as simple as that." End of discussion._

**- End of Flashback -**

"Are you sure you heard me correctly?" Moriko laughed nervously. "I don't remember—"

"I'm sure." He answered sternly and turned to Kiba, "You were there too, right?" Kiba nodded.

_Oh crap… two people are against me. _"Oh, I heard that too!" Naruto seconded the motion. _Make that three… Ugh. Me and my big mouth._

"You know, you're pretty lucky, having a sannin slash hokage as your trainer." Moriko nodded. _Well, that's sort of true. _As Tsunade's student, people would surely expect a lot from her. Awesome. _Huh--? Wait, no! Not awesome! That's hard!_

"You guys are student and teacher. No big, right? Addressing her like that. We just wanna know…" Naruto grinned. "If you tell us we promise we won't tell anybody. Only the three of us will know. Right, guys?" Shikamaru and Kiba just nodded. You can't hide the fact that their curiosity was almost leaking.

"I can't, okay?" Moriko blinked as an idea lit the light bulb. "Unless, of course, you wanna make another bet?" _Gossips? Who cares about that? I don't think a simple thing like that should be harmful. It's just a simple suffix. Nothing big. _Moriko thought carelessly.

"You know, I think you've been influence by Tsunade-baa-chan. She's always gambling and drinking. But she sucks a lot. Sometimes I wonder where she gets all the money for that." Naruto stuck out his tongue."Well, at least I don't suck. I think. So… deal or no deal?"

"Bring it on." Kiba answered as Naruto nodded enthusiastically. Shikamaru sighed and muttered a "Girls are so troublesome…" but nonetheless agreed with the two.

"Alright then. If you losers won't be able to convince or discover why I call them ane by the end of our mission, you will all serve me for a month! Including the one week deal." Moriko's eyes glinted.

"A month and a week?! But that's too long. No fair…" Naruto pouted.

" I agree to that but I accept. Although, if we do find out, you'll be serving us for a month too." Shikamaru said with a smirk. " Fine… fine. Besides you won't win anyway." Moriko's heart pounded. She just realized that she was dealing with a genius. _Well, he's lazy. So I don't need to worry. Right? _Moriko asked herself anxiously.

"Hmph. Don't get too cocky." Kiba warned her.

Then all of a sudden, Kiba's serious look came back. He sniffed a couple of times as his brows furrowed. "They're close at hand!"

"Shikamaru, what do we do now?"

* * *

**Rewritten: April 25, 2008**

Reviews are looovveee xD So this chapter turned out kinda lame. It's kinda… random. Specially the near end part. Sorry, but I think I have some attention-span issues. I tend to add in tidbits of random stuff in the middle of the fic and they don't really follow through the story. Besides forgetting my own plot, I think this one's trouble too.


	4. Recollect

I advice you guys to play Sakura's Theme when you reach the flashback part. It's fine if you don't wanna but I just thought the music fits the scene. I'm a visual person and I do hear BGMs playing off in my head when I type stories xD

* * *

**Chapter 4: Recollect**

Shikamaru looked around the area, crouching in position with his fingertips from both hands touching each other. He opened his eyes and stared at his teammates. Shikamaru deduced that they could grab some advantage in their hands if only two Oto-nin will go against the four of them.

Kiba and Akamaru snuffled as they ran, his eyes scanning around the place cautiously. "They're very close…"

"If things go well, we might, hopefully, finish the mission with one last encounter since it'll be four on two. But even if it's like that, don't let your guard down. "Looking back at the last two enemies that we've faced, I can tell these two are just as strong." Shikamaru said sharply. "Or maybe stronger…"

"Hey, I think you're mistaken." Kiba pointed at Akamaru who barked at him

"Ah, my mistake. Including Akamaru so that's five of us. So now, it's a fairly good five against two."

"Alright, we got this!" Naruto bent his arm upward, his fist in a clench. "I think that's enough talk, we should speed up."

"It's better if we finish this before the sun sets."

"Understood." The three of them riposted in unison, finally getting back their serious attitude they had before. "Let's speed this up."

* * *

"The sun is setting. Neither Jiroubo nor Kidoumaru is catching up." Tayuya frowned at this and glanced at Sakon. "I hate to say it but… those pieces of trash are tougher than we thought." Sakon's eyes squinted as the sun's glinting rays penetrated his orbs.

"They must've had a hard time. Hmph, weaklings." Comrade or not, Tayuya always has something insulting to say to someone in a situation like this.

"But that doesn't matter. What matters is Orochimaru-sama. We better accelerate our pace." Tayuya said as she looked down at the barrel, their footwork barely visible as they landed on each tree branch.

"We've only finished one third of our plan in half a day. We've run into too much interference."

"Yeah, this is bad."

* * *

"Hey guys… it's nightfall already." Moriko said wearily while staring at the sun slowly descend into the horizon.

"Shit… Time's too fast! And I'm hungry already… " Naruto complained with the duet of his stomach grumbling. "Damn it, we still haven't caught up to them. I know they're close but how long are we going to run after them?" Kiba protested and kvetched about it.

"No, this is fine. Attacking at this kind of time will be an advantage for us." Shikamaru then thought about what he just said, his hand below his chin." But it'll also give advantage to our opponents…" He sighed wearily. "This no use, we need a better plan."

"What do you mean, Shikamaru?"

"Actually… forget that. We'll attack when the sun rises."

"Screw that! There's no time!" Naruto yelled.

"_Yeah, and what about Neji and Chouji?" _Moriko thought, putting on a worried expression. She didn't bother asking since it'll just add pressure to them.

"That's right! Besides, attacking in the dark is just fine." Kiba said, looking back at Shikamaru and Naruto.

"Not really, Kiba. The only advantage we have is the one chance that we get to strike at them. Chances of getting Sasuke back, escaping, and getting far away are close to zero. But things would've been a little easier if Neji's byakugan was here."

"Hey, hey! Don't forget my and Akamaru's nose."

"I've already added and analyzed that to my calculations. It's still no use." Kiba frowned. "Plus… my kage mane would be useless with the clouds constantly covering the moon. It's troublesome and it's far too risky to attack at a time like this, there are far too many dangerous uncertainties."

"Ah… if things are like this then we really do need to think of another plan. It's just that we're wasting so much time when we're so close to them already." Moriko said scrunching up her nose. "Being so close to them, their fetor is bothering my nose.

"I'm glad you noticed." Kiba said, looking over his shoulder. "Akamaru's been complaining about it. That Scent Marking Technique you've got is handy but maybe you should try using something that doesn't smell like a corpse or rotten varieties of food." Kiba sniffed a little and scratched his nose.

"Sorry, but the smell comes from the ground." Moriko said with a guilty smile. "You know what I mean right? Dead bodies decaying, fertilizers, feces and stuff." Moriko heard Shikamaru muble an "Ew…"

"That's gross, Moriko-chan!" Naruto yelled while pointing.

"Can't help it, can we?" Moriko sighed.

"Anyway, we will keep this distance and continue the pursuit. Which means, we'll have to postpone our attack and wait until the sun rises." Shikamaru stated firmly.

"Alright." Everyone turned their attention to Naruto. "You're the leader so I'll follow your orders, Shikamaru." Kiba and Moriko looked at each other then nodded.

"Yeah, thanks. While we're continuing with the pursuit, we'll take the time to come up with a plan."

* * *

Several hours had passed and the first ray of the sun crept slowly on the horizon. "Sunrise…"

Moriko covered her eyes with the back of her hand from the bright sunlight.

"Looks like we've caught up." Kiba said with a cocky tone. "Hm?" Moriko turned to where Kiba's eyes were glued. A smile crawled across her lips.

"Yes… we have." Moriko placed a hand on her hips as she watched the two Oto nin turn their heads to see them.

"What the hell are those two doing?" Tayuya scoffed, referring to her other two teammates, Jiroubo and Kidoumaru. Tayuya and Sakon stood up and turned their full attention to their pursuers.

"How about we finish this quickly?!" Sakon leapt towards them then dodged the kunai Naruto threw at him. Kiba and Shikamaru charged at Sakon while Moriko stepped in front of Naruto who created a kage bunshin to be able to produce his Rasengan.

Sakon's Taren Ken easily threw off Kiba and Shikamaru. Moriko crossed her arms to shield herself from Sakon's kick but was thrown aside by the impact. Sakon saw the chakra gathering onto Naruto's palm and assumed it to be a dangerous one. He easily avoided the Rasengan by simply grabbing Naruto's hand away from himself.

"There's no point if I grab your hand with technique before you let it out." Sakon said with mockery.

"_Now, Kiba!" _Naruto thought.

"Tsuuga!" Kiba spun like a vortex behind Naruto. He thrust through Naruto's body and revealed it to be a kage bunshin. Sakon ducked and Tayuya saw a clear view of Kiba's Tsuuga coming right at her.

"_They placed Sakon and me in a straight line." _Tayuya frowned. _"This is what they're aiming for!" _Unbeknownst to Tayuya was Shikamaru standing just a few feet away from her. She twitched as she felt her body stiffen. Tayuya looked at her side. _"Shit."_

"Kage Mane no Jutsu, success." Tayuya saw Shikamaru, his elongated shadow connected with hers.

"_A diversion!" _Tayuya tried hard to shift her eyes to the side. _"He's coming!" _She said as she saw Kiba from the corner of her eyes. What she thought was an attack aimed at her, was actually a move to get the barrel that she placed beside her. She watched Kiba's upside-down body land his hands on the edges of the barrel and then bend his body downwards, taking the barrel with him.

"Tayuya! Why the hell are you just staring off into space?!" Sakon screamed, charging in her direction.

"No!" Tayuya stood up forcibly and took a few steps forward.

"What are you doing?!" Sakon yelled again. _No! I can't dodge her._

Shikamaru slipped his other foot intentionally and Tayuya's foot mimicked his action. She slipped sideward and Sakon crashed into her. Moriko stood at the opposite end of the branch where Shikamaru stood and lengthened her hair, blue streaks streaming down her dark tresses. Her hair split into two halves before binding Sakon and Tayuya. Kiba tossed the barrel to Naruto and jumped off the branch he was hanging onto.

"Shikamaru, let's get out of here!" Kiba shouted. Moriko quickly released the two from the grasp of her hair and followed Kiba.

"Nice one, Shikamaru!" Moriko cheered, jumping off beside him from tree to tree.

"Just as I thought. They were full of openings." Shikamaru said calmly.

"It all went well." Naruto held the barrel tight in his arms.

"Yeah, all according plan."

"It's because Shikamaru's a genius!" Moriko grinned with a thumbs up.

"Now, we're one to two steps ahead of them." Shikamaru continued, catching up with Naruto.

"In the mean time, we're gonna have to continue creating huge distance between us and those Oto nin, right?" Kiba asked and Shikamaru nodded.

"Bastards!" Tayuya swore loudly, standing on her feet.

"Pieces of shit… how dare they." Sakon stood up calmly but with an irate facial expression. He tapped his foot lightly on the wood as he activated his curse seal. "They're not gonna get away with this!" Sakon leapt swiftly on the aligned tree branches while Tayuya followed.

Moriko looked back and saw Sakon just several meters away from them. "Kiba!" She called his attention and he looked back at what she was staring behind them.

"They're fast!" Kiba looked down as he heard Akamaru's bark. "Akamaru!" While the four people left of Konoha six set their plans into action, Akamaru had went deeper into the woods in advance to set up several explosive seals on a certain number of trees. He had just finish when Shikamaru's party passed above him. "Hurry! Come as soon as you're done." Akamaru barked back and quickly ran after his master.

Sakon landed and paused on a tree branch not realizing the explosive seal on the branch's trunk he was standing on until sparks flew out from it. "Crap!" The seal exploded and detonated the other seals simulatenously. Naruto and the others stopped on a branch and looked back at the explosion.

"Nice work, Akamaru!" Kiba praised him and Akamaru barked back happily, jumping onto his master.

A tree collapsed from the explosion and created a cloud of smoke. But even before the tree could touch the ground, Sakon sprang high from it. "Don't fuck with me!" He jumped against from tree to tree coming down at Akamaru.

Akamaru tried to stay out of the way but slipped in the moss filled bough. "Akamaru!" Sakon charged at Akamaru with the wire that came out of his sleeve. The wire bound Akamaru flat on the tree's limb, right in front of a yet to explode seal.

"Shut your 'woof' damn bitch!"

"Kiba, explosive seal!" Moriko pointed at it as he and Kiba tried to save Akamaru. The moment the both of them alighted on the tree's arm, the explosive seal went off and she, Kiba and Sakon reflexly shielded themselves with their arms.

The seal made a huge impact that pushed the four of them, including Akamaru, right into a cliff. Moriko hung at the edge of the cliff with one hand, ready to slip but Naruto came just in time to pull her hand back up.

"Moriko! Ah… thank God I came right on time." Naruto sighed out of relief as Shikamaru walked beside him.

"Naruto, don't pull me up!" Moriko twisted her body, struggling out of Naruto's grasp. "Shikamaru, let me follow Kiba."

"Moriko-chan, don't do that. You'll fall!" Naruto exclaimed, bringing his other hand to hold Moriko's.

"No." He answered flatly. Moriko had expected that. "Can you even see the bottom of the cliff you're hanging onto?" Shikamaru asked. Moriko turned her head carefully and looked over her shoulder.

"No…"

"It's that deep. There's only about five percent chance that you'll survive a fall like that. We don't even know what's waiting for you down there. It could be sharp and rugged rocks or whatever. If you survive, then you're more than lucky."

"I won't die, Shikamaru. Just trust me. It's the only thing we can all do. "

"I know, but I can't risk anyone's life anymore. I can't let anyone die. "

"But no one died! I would know if anyone's dead."

" Yes, I know that but jumping off the cliff is too dangerous. That's why I said 'risk'."

"But there's only one more Oto nin left… you guys should be able to handle her alone. I want to help Kiba." Moriko looked up at Shikamaru who didn't say anything else. She sighed and slowly moved her hanging arm to her strapped on pouch on her leg. "Here, smell this." Moriko handed them a small bottle as carefully as she could. Shikamaru reached for it took out the small cork from the bottle's mouth. A sweet smell filled the air for a few seconds before fading away.

"You probably can't smell it anymore but at least you're familiar with it now."

"What is this for?" Naruto asked, staring at the small bottle.

"If I die, a sudden foul smell will waft through your noses. If nothing happens then that means I'm alive. If you smell a faint fragrance of the same smell, that means I'm somewhere close to you guys." Moriko explained.

"Hey wait, I just said—" Shikamaru finally realized where Moriko was getting at and tried to protest but was cut off.

"Sorry, Shikamary, Naruto. I've been useless throughout the whole mission. It's about time I do my job properly and have a little action myself." Moriko forced her other hand against Naruto's and slipped away. She shouted as she fell off in the dark depths of the cliff. "There are two of you against a girl! Piece of cake, right? GOOD LUCK!" Moriko saluted at Naruto and Shikamaru with a grin before disappearing into the darkness.

"We should be the one saying good luck to her." Shikamaru mumbled, slapping his hand against his forehead.

"Ne… you think she's gonna make it?" Naruto asked with a worried tone.

"Hey! You shitty rats, think you can escape from me?" The two looked behind them and saw Tayuya with her hot pink hair flowing with the wind.

"Shikamaru, any plans?"

"…Yeah." Shikamaru looked up at Naruto then to the opponent as a smirk crept across his face.

* * *

Moriko's eyes shot up open with a gasp. "I'm alive!" She breathed bringing up both of her arms in front of her and kicking both of her legs a couple of times. _"No broken bones or anything… Good." _Moriko had controlled the direction of the wind and gathered them at the bottom of the cliff to act as a cushion when she falls down. It lessened the impact of the fall by a lot but she still felt her body thump on the ground a little.

Moriko looked around and saw Kiba on the water. She looked at direction he was staring at saw the blue haired oto nin. Moriko watched as Kiba turned to Akamaru before standing up. Akamaru then transformed himself as Kiba's clone. They ran and separated on Sakon's both side and performed Gatsuuga at the same time.

The attack created a huge cloud of dust. When the smoke cleared out, Moriko blinked at the sight. The other head hanging behind Sakon suddenly had arms and was holding both of Kiba's hands, Sakon doing the same with the other Kiba. "So that bunch of hair at his back was actually alive." Moriko whispered.

Moriko continued to observe the battle. The other Kiba tried to struggle out of Sakon's grasp and attempted to kick him in the stomach only to be stopped by a sudden foot emerging out of Sakon's abdomen. "The hell is that?"

Sakon delivered a punch to the other Kiba and sent him flying against a boulder. There was a small puff of smoke and the Kiba clone transformed back into Akamaru. "Akamaru!" Moriko heard Kiba shout.

"Ah… so you're the real one, huh?" Sakon turned around swiftly and used Taren Ken on Kiba and sent him flying against a boulder as well. Sakon ran up to him sending another set of rapid punches, which Kiba barely avoided. He brought his hands onto Kiba's neck and demonstrated his abilities. Showing the other person emerge out from any part of his body. Akamaru ran up to them and Sakon threw Kiba with three kicks, one each from three feet.

"Kiba! Akamaru!" Moriko ran towards their battling area and delivered a flying kick to Sakon. He was thrown aback and hit against the wall. Moriko brought her hands together and formed an earth seal. Thick vines protruded out of the walls and wrapped around Sakon's body, binding him.

"Kiba!" Moriko ran quickly to Kiba's aid while their enemies were still tied up. "Are you alright?"

"Moriko? What're you doing here?"

"I followed you. By falling off the cliff as well. I thought you'd need a little assistance."

"Bitch!" Sakon screeched. Moriko turned her head to the struggling Oto nin.

"I wouldn't move as much if I were you. Keep moving and those vines will tighten around you until you're crushed." Moriko waved a finger and smiled broadly. "Now behave while I talk to my teammate."

"Moriko, that head behind him is his brother. I think he called him Ukon. When he started moving around his body, his chakra increased tenfold." Moriko frowned.

"Looks like he's a difficult one."

"Yeah—Moriko!" Kiba pointed behind her. Before she could even turn around, she felt a strong hand grab her shoulder and turn her around. _"He got out that fast?!"_

"Ack!" Ukon held Kiba's neck tightly.

"Kiba!" Moriko exclaimed as she tried to look behind Sakon.

"Oy, oy… never turn your back and withdraw your attention from your enemy." Sakon smirk, tightening his hands around her neck.

"Urk…" Moriko grimaced. Ukon slid across his brother's body, bringing Kiba beside Moriko. The brothers looked at each other before throwing the two Konoha nins against a giant boulder. _"This guy sure likes throwing people around." _Just as Moriko's hair grew down until her shoulders, Sakon flashed in front of them, pinning both Kiba and Moriko.

"Your hair just grew. What did you do?" Sakon asked, his voice washed in malice.

"My ability… idiot…" Moriko once again found herself in mid-air, her neck held tightly by Sakon. He brought her closer to him, having them face-to-face with each other. Moriko made a face. "Woah, too close buddy." She scoffed. "Are you wearing lipstick?" Sakon scowled, squeezing her neck.

"How do you like it, Aniki?" Sakon turned and asked.

"In bits and pieces." The brothers chuckled evilly in excitement. Moriko continued lengthening her hair and then stopped abruptly.

"_Ah." _Moriko stared at Sakon's side view face then blinked. _"He looks… familiar. I wonder why… Wait—this not the time to be thinking about that!" _Sakon looked at Moriko then smirked as he saw her staring intently at him. The closeness between their faces distracted Moriko. Sakon drew out a kunai and licked it like the sadist he was before running the sharp edge against her flesh. Moriko's eyes fluttered when she thought she saw Sakon blink for a moment and flash a familiarity to her by giving her a look as if he recognized her.

Then it hit her. Like a lightning striking her from God above himself. Pictures and scenes she had never thought she'd seen before flickered before her eyes one after the other like a movie.

"_This guy… He looks like—"_

**- Flashback -  
Konaha - 7 years ago**

"Hey, wait for me!"

"Moriko, you're too slow."

"Hmph! I'm not slow, you're just too fast."

"Right, I'm sorry." The boy said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "You need to keep up with pace, you know." He said but nonetheless offered his hand to the girl behind him. She took it and the boy pulled her up with a smile.

"Look, Moriko." Young Moriko gasped for air before raising her head, looking at the direction the boy was pointing at.

"Wow…" She gasped, looking down at the sight of the whole Konoha. The people looked like ants and the houses looked like toys from her place. "Everything I see from up here is beautiful!" She exclaimed breathlessly looking around at the magnificently arranged nature around their village. They were atop a very high precipice and it took more than half of the day to reach the place they were standing at.

"Amazing sight, huh? But that's not the best part." He nodded off in a straight but farther direction. Moriko looked into his eyes and followed his gaze. Her eyes glittered from the last rays of the sun fading into the water. The golden orb drowned slowly, its light dancing enchantingly on the sea making it glister more than a million times than a room filled with diamonds. Moriko was rendered speechless.

"Its beauty is beyond words…" The young boy smiled endearingly. "I was lost for words when I saw this place. I then decided that moment that this is the place where I'm going to marry the woman I swear to protect with my life." Moriko looked at him.

"The sun right over there is the most beautiful and tastiest egg I have ever seen in my life." Moriko said with a grin. "I wish to eat something like that one day."

"Eh? Egg?" The boy made a face that clearly said, "That totally destroyed the mood."

"Aww… look at that face. You're so cute you should wear that expression everyday." Moriko cooed.

"I'm not making any face and stop saying weird things like that out of the blue!" The boy blushed furiously and Moriko laughed at him.

"I like you. Did you know that?" She smiled with a slight tint of red on her cheeks.

"I said I like you, Sa--"

**- End of Flashback -**

"Sa… kon…?" Moriko whispered, blinking awake from her stupor. Sakon blinked in confusion and lowered his kunai.

"…Huh?"

* * *

**Rewritten: April 27, 2008**

I apologize for the lame "action" stuffs and the corny flashback. Hope you enjoyed even though it didn't come out that good xD


	5. Sidetrack

**Chapter 5: Sidetrack**

"Sakon…?" Moriko whispered again with confusion apparent in her tone.

"What?" Sakon's grip around her neck loosened a little. Moriko's eyes went blank and Sakon gave her a puzzled look before turning to his brother. "Brother, something's up with her."

"Huh?" Ukon turned his head to the side to look at Moriko. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Kiba who himself was eyeing Moriko with a baffled expression. "Drop her. We'll deal with her later and finish this guy first." Ukon spoke again. Kiba frowned almost immeadiately.

"Alright." Sakon dropped Moriko with a shrug. She stared straight ahead with zombie eyes, confusion written all over her face.

"_What's going on? I've met lots of people who gave a familiar vibe but this one's different."_

"Moriko! Hey!" Kiba shouted swinging his foot to block Sakon's kick that was directed at her. "Snap out of it!" Kiba bit Ukon's arm and sent him flying with a kick. He quickly turned to Moriko and grabbed her shoulders. "Moriko, what's wrong?" He shook her a little before quickly turning around to block the irritated twins. Akamaru ran towards Moriko and bit her shirt, gabbing her to a farther location to keep her away from the battle.

"Sakon, level 2." Ukon ordered as the pattern on his skin glowed and covered his whole body, transforming his appearance into that of a red-skinned devil.

"Alright, alright." Sakon smirked, doing the same.

Kiba's yowl sounded like a soft whisper. Like a voice from a far away distance. Moriko clutched her head as she felt something unraveling inside of her. She saw herself in a dark void and heard voices, lots of different voices. Pictures flashed quickly before her kneeling figure one after the other that she couldn't even tell what the images looked like. Moriko's head throbbed with the unexplainable thing that was happening to her.

Moriko raised her head over a still screen with flickering images in front of her. _"This… I've seen this before in my dream." _She lifted her hand and tried to touch the giant hologram-like screen but it only shattered into pieces and disappeared.

Moriko began to think of the constant dream she kept dreaming about. The boy in his dream was always a blur and his voice was never clear. Whenever she tried to call out his name, she'd always wake up. "This Sakon guy… is he…?" Moriko frowned at the thought. She looked around again at the numerous holograms all over the place. They all played different scenes but only two people appeared in all of them.

"That's the younger me and… that boy." She cocked her head slightly to one side and focused on the young boy. Each time she watched a hologram very carefully, the images of the boy became clearer and clearer.

"Almost all of this appeared in my dream and yet they all seemed to have happened in real life… They all feel so familiar to me." Moriko wondered if they were all fragments of her memories of the past as the holograms only showed a younger her. She thought of how she could never really remember any memories when she was young.

Moriko walked closer to the hologram but it disappeared and reappeared in a farther direction. Moriko found herself absorbed in her own thoughts when she heard a child's scream. She looked behind her and saw her younger self running in the forest with tears streaming down her face.

Another scream was heard and young Moriko looked back in the direction she was running from with a horrified face. Her face showed fear, guilt and regret and this continued to play tricks with Moriko's mind. "This a part of that dream… the one I had yesterday." Moriko frowned in confusion.

"That dream felt painful and I kept saying sorry." Moriko placed her hand on her chest recalling the dream.

-Meanwhile-

"GAROUGA!!" Kiba and Akamaru had transformed into a two-headed wolf. That attack was their last one. Sakon and Ukon have already split up, they summoned a giant gate that had a demon's face embedded in it and chains hanging off of its side. It blocked Kiba and Akamaru's Garouga but they were able to damage the gate, Rashoumon, Orochimaru's absolute defense.

Before they transformed into their normal selves, Akamaru took a pissed at Sakon's face. He cried in pain with his hands over his eyes. "My eyes! This isn't normal piss, it's acid!" Ukon punched Akamaru as soon as they have transformed into their true form. Kiba landed with his feet on the ground and looked around to find the missing Ukon.

"_Where is he?"_

"Yo. Looking for me?" Ukon had his head extended out of Kiba's arm. "This is my ability. I can kill you by ripping your cells off." He smirked. Kiba looked at him with a terrified expression before grabbing a kunai out of his pocket then stabbing himself in the stomach. The two cried in pain, blood spurting out of their mouth.

"Suicide? You fool!" Ukon yelled as Kiba pulled out the bloodied kunai.

"Our bodies are connected right? I wonder what would if I do this." Kiba smirked. "Let's die together." Kiba straightened the kunai and aimed it at his stomach again. He gathered courage while he closed his eyes before plunging in the sharp object into his flesh.

Ukon's eyes widened and made a wise decision to get out of Kiba's body before he takes another critical hit in the abdomen. Kiba yelped as he felt the sharp edge cut his insides.

"_I'm losing a lot of blood." _Ukon thought, raising his head to look at his opponent with a kunai thrust into his stomach.

Kiba tried to think clearly, trying to ignore blood running down his flesh. He took out the kunai and scowled at Ukon. He felt his hands shook and his whole body weakening. Kiba knew he needed to escape badly. He was out of chakra, Akamaru blacked out and Moriko was in a hypnotized state.

"_The smoke screen won't last too long but… if I move quickly I'll be able to grab both Akamaru and Moriko." _Kiba threw the kunai at Ukon, which he blocked easily with his armor-like arms. Kiba quickly threw two, small smoke bombs that immediately exploded into thick, dark clouds.

Kiba used Shunshin and grabbed Akamaru. He turned around to get Moriko next but she stood up and ran away. Kiba blinked then looked down at Akamaru. _"A diversion?" _He wondered and then decided on escaping through the opposite direction.

"Shit, where did he go?" Ukon ran around the cloud of smoke, swinging his arms around to clear them off. He looked at the rock where Moriko was dragged. "She's gone! Where did she—" He looked up and saw a disappearing figure of girl. He smirked.

"Did she really think they can get us by separating?" He turned around and saw an unconscious Akamaru on the ground. He walked towards him with a sneer. "Hooh… so he left his dog and ran away huh? What a shame." As soon as he was only inches away from Akamaru, it bloated up and exploded with several kunai flying through the air.

"That bastard, I'm gonna kill him!" Ukon swore loudly, the bandage on his right foot absorbing his blood from the several cuts he got from the trap.

"Sakon! Sakon!" Ukon called out angrily.

"What? You're hurting my ears—ah, aniki…" Sakon stared at his staggering brother who had already changed back in his original form.

"They both escaped and went separate ways. I'd want to rest for a while but we have to finish this quickly." Ukon said as he looked at his bloodied uniform. "You catch the girl, the bastard's mine."

"Aniki, are you sure you don't want to regenerate first? You're all messed up." Sakon looked at his brother from head to toe.

"I said I'd want to but we don't have time for that. One went left and one went right. We're in a valley so there's no other way besides left and right… we don't have a choice but to split up if we want to get them." Sakon nodded and reached for something from his pouch.

"Here, you need it more than I do." Sakon threw a red pill at him.

"Blood restoring pill?" Sakon nodded.

"You've lost too much blood already." Ukon flapped his hand, gesturing Sakon to get on his way. Sakon turned around to walk away but then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Hey, about that girl…"

"What?" Ukon chucked the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. There was a short pause between the twins before Ukon quirked an eyebrow. "What?" He asked again in a hasty tone.

"… Nothing." Sakon mumbled and walked ahead, leaving his brother looking after him. Ukon stood up and straightened his posture.

"Is something bothering you?" Ukon asked again in a monotone. He clicked his tongue when he got no response from his brother. "Hey, doesn't that girl give you a surprisingly familiar feeling?" Sakon stopped in his tracks and looked back. _"That got his attention. I knew it…" _

"I told you it's—" Ukon already disappeared with the shunshin technique. "Tsch… stupid brother." Sakon speeded up with shunshin and tried to ignore the matter that Ukon brought up. _"So he noticed it too…"_

Meanwhile, Moriko didn't know that her body had subconsciously moved on its own accord. She leapt from tree as soon as she had reached the forest part of the valley. She once again dropped to her knees with her hands firmly grasping her head. The pain woke her up from her daze.

"This pain again…" She hissed then blinked at her surroundings. "Where… am I?" Moriko stood up and tried to remember what had happened. "I was in a dark space with some movie screens of some sort. It felt like a dream but was I really sleeping?" She raised an eyebrow as the silliest theory came to her. "Did I really fall asleep and sleep-walked here?"

There was silence between the nature and Moriko. "Nah." She said as she waved her hand dismissively. "So… a while ago I said someone's name. If I'm not mistaken, I uttered that oto nin's name as he reacted when I said it." Moriko's musings were interrupted with a sudden sound ringing in her head.

"Not… this again." She groaned as her eyes slowly went blank again. Moriko opened her eyes to see herself back in the dark empty space. "I'm gonna develop a nyctophobia if I keep coming to this place." She whispered to herself as she felt goose bumps.

_Helloooo Moriko _The voice earlier had come back

"You again."

_Alright, let's get this done quickly._

"Huh?" Moriko looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

_Pull your shirt up. _The voice ordered nonchalantly.

"What?" Moriko snapped back incredulously. "Why?"

_Just do it and you'll see. _Moriko gave a suspicious like before the voice spoke again. _It's fine, no one's here. I'm a girl, you're a girl, no problem right? _Moriko heaved a defeated sigh and peeled off her top.

"Now what?" Moriko asked, her hand holding up her shirt against her chest.

_Look at the left side of your chest. _Moriko looked down and was surprised to see a seal that held a great resemblance to that of Naruto's seal.

"What is this…?" Moriko ran a hand over the symbol on her chest, looking at it with great curiosity. "Since when did I have this?"

_It's the Hisa Seal, you've had it ever since you were born. It will only appear when I've awakened already. And that was yesterday, when you talked to me for the first time._

"Are you saying you're sealed inside me?"

_Mmhmm… _The voice answered casually.

"Who are you?" Moriko asked skeptically.

_Me? _The voice coughed a bit and spoke again. _Oops, sorry. Forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kagerou. _The voice answered genially.

"Kagerou…" Moriko repeated to herself. "What are you?"

_You silly, I'm human._

* * *

**Rewritten: May 2 08**

I nearly tore out my hair while I reread this chapter. It's horrible and confusing. Reading the first few paragraphs last night already gave me the feeling that I was gonna have a hard time rewriting this one. And guess what, I really did. Curse my old self and my pointless twisted plot.


	6. Kagerou

**Chapter 6: Kagerou**

"So there's a human soul inside my body…" Moriko made a face as she pulled down her shirt.

"Before you try to flood me with your questions, I'll explain first." Kagerou took a deep breath. "I created the Bijuu." Moriko flinched.

"What?"

"To make things clear, let's start from the very beginning." Moriko crossed her arms in her chest and waited anxiously for Kagerou to continue. "The Shodai Hokage and the Nidaime are my cousins. The First Hokage's power is known to be able to control the powers of the Bijuu. That's because his cousin was the creator. I knew how to tame them and of course I knew I had to pass that knowledge to someone."

"I created them to protect Konoha and the neighboring countries. Things were just fine when the bijuus were still quite young, when they were still under my control. But then things got out of hand and the matured bijuus became beasts that destroyed everything. It was a big, shameful failure and trouble on my part."

"I thought you said you can tame them."

"I can but it's not that easy specially when they all become like that at the same time. But I had the First Hokage help me so… we were able to subdue the Bijuu's destructive actions somehow."

"Somehow…" Moriko echoed.

"Yeah, we weren't able to completely put them under control but at least the lands were safe for the time being."

"Time being? So you're saying that they're gonna move again not long after 'taming' them?" Moriko placed her index finger on her cheek as she slightly tilted her head to one side.

"Yeah. You know that incident with the Kyuubi and that Naruto kid, right?" Moriko nodded. "It was sooner or later than that that those creatures started to go on a rampage again."

"I see… so then, how come I've never heard about you in our history?"

"Ah, that's because it'll ruin the Hokage's name and reputation. Something like that is more troublesome than most people think." Kagerou answered casually. Moriko made a face.

"Aren't you bothered that your existence have been wiped off?"

"Well… it does but not that much. I'd rather be in the shadows than become an infamous kunoichi known as the creator of the Bijuus which caused natural destruction and war between countries."

"You're right." Moriko mentally sweat dropped. "Hey, don't you have any intention of showing yourself?" There was a few seconds of awkward silence before Moriko sighed inwardly. She blinked as a sudden speck of light appeared in front of her face. _"What the—" _The speck of light slowly grew and started to take shape that of a human body. Moriko eyes widened at the being in front of her. Before her stood a white haired and blue eyed young woman.

"No, no you can't be Kagerou. You're too beautiful." Moriko waved her dismissively.

"I'm flattered but there can only be one Kagerou." Kagerou put a hand on her waist with a grin. Moriko stared at her in awe but with a mixed look of constipation. Kagerou frowned. "What's that ugly look in your face?"

Moriko shook her head and waved her hand. "No, no it can't be."

"You can stare at me with envious eyes later. Let's continue where we left off." Moriko huffed then nodded.

"So the things you said earlier, how is it related to me?"

"Eventually I became old and my days were counted. The Hokage got worried that after the both of us die, no one will be able to stop the Bijuus without thousands of life being sacrificed. So together, we made the Hisa seal." Kagerou twirled her hair then looked at Moriko.

"But I wasn't born yet at that time."

"I know. Your female ancestor was my first body. I am passed down to a different body once a new generation is born."

"I see…" Moriko nodded as she grasped all the information she heard. "You can't afford to disappear after all, as long as those Bijuus are still considered dangerous." Kagerou nodded. "But then… why didn't you just pass down your knowledge of taming them?"

"I couldn't trust anyone. We were in the middle of a war, if I passed it on to the wrong person who knows what will happen?" Kagerou snapped her fingers and gave Moriko a wink. "Here's a little fact: Kagerou's soul is passed on to different people but they can grow with a different personality and appearance."

"So you're like… Kagerou's reincarnation?" Moriko asked with interest.

"Mhm. I know everything the original Kagerou knows and I can do anything that she can do. I'm still Kagerou but born with a different personality and appearance." Moriko scratched her head.

"That's kinda confusing but that's like saying starting out a new life, right? When you get tired of your old self, you try to do something that will turn you into a new person. Like getting a surgery or something." Moriko grinned.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that." Kagerou laughed.

"Question! Why is it on my chest?" Moriko asked as she peered under her shirt.

"Well… I thought, since I was originally a human as well, it'd be easier for us to be connected to each other. The brain is the mastermind of our body but it's the heart that feels. Your emotions are my emotions and vice versa. So whatever you feel, I feel it as well. Physically and emotionally that is. Understanding my host is important for me so we can easily combine our strengths."

"You said earlier that the seal only appeared now because you've just awakened. What exactly wakes you up?" Kagerou looked at her with a childish annoyed look.

"You sure ask a lot of questions."

"I can't help it if I'm curious. I'm your body after all, I have the right to know." Kagerou rolled her eyes.

"There's no exact time to when I'm awakened but from what I've observed from my previous hosts, there are many ways. It can be due to the hosts' strong emotion that I myself can feel. An encounter with one of the Bijuu disrupts my sleep. There're also chances when the hosts find me in their subconscious but even without those I can still wake up by myself when the right time comes."

"Did you know what's going on in the outside world when you were sleep?"

"Yes, even in my sleep I see what the host sees. It's like watching a movie." Moriko opened her mouth to speak but was cut off when Kagerou spoke again. "You've asked too much, it's my turn now." Moriko sat down and listened intently to what she had to say. "What do you think woke me up?" Moriko frowned.

"I wanted to ask you that. I'm not exactly sure but when you said emotions I thought it had something to do with this person who kept stirring up my mind." Kagerou raised an eyebrow.

"Who is this person?" Kagerou crouched and looked at Moriko with a serious expression. "It's that oto nin, if I remember clearly, his name was Sakon."

"_I knew it."_

"I keep having this weird dream of a younger me and another boy. Up until I met him, the boy was always a blur. But now it's become a little clearer, I could see some resemblance between him and the boy. They both have grayish hair and pale skin. But the boy didn't have a head at his back."

"Anything else?"

"Well I can't accurately say that he's the boy in my dream. And… even it was him, it's just a dream--"

"--That feels like reality." Kagerou finished the sentence for her.

"Yeah… I want to know what that dream is trying to tell me. I want to know why it feels like it's a missing piece of my life." Moriko sighed. "I kept wondering if those dreams were actually an important part of my past that I've already forgotten." Moriko looked down and twiddled her fingers. "But if they were so important why did I forget?" Kagerou blinked at her then placed a hand on her head.

"Do you think you know that Sakon kid for real?"

"Well… he gives off a very familiar feeling. It's like déjà vu." Moriko sighed with a doubtful smile. "But someone like him can't possibly be linked to me, right? He's not my type after all." Kagerou raised an eyebrow.

"What are you saying?"

"I had this flashback and I said there that I liked the boy. I can't possibly be attracted to someone like him. He can't be the boy. The guy wears green lipstick! " Kagerou snorted and smacked Moriko's back with her hand.

"No way! You like him?" Kagerou suddenly went into fits of laughter until she could no longer breathe. Moriko gave her a perplexed look.

"Why are you saying something like that as if you know him?"

"Ah—" Kagerou quickly stopped laughing and avoided eye contact with Moriko. "I was just surprised because uh… you said he wears green lipstick. I just thought it's funny." Kagerou laughned nervously.

"Are you hiding something?"

"Huh? No, why would I? Do you think a beautiful face like mine would lie?" Kagerou pointed at her face with a wide grin. Moriko stared at her blankly.

"Yeah. Beautiful women are deceitful."

"Ah well… back to our topic. You said something a while ago about your past memories?" Moriko looked down.

"My memories before I met Tsunade-ane are completely wiped out. I don't remember anything."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing. That's why I keep thinking those dreams may be real after all. But… I can't be so sure of that can I? Hey, wait." Kagerou blinked. "You said you can see the outside world even when you're sleeping right?"

"Not everything. Even though we have one body, we're still two different individuals. Sometimes there are things that I don't see. Ah, like privacy for example. Your subconscious mind puts a wall between us so that I wouldn't see your body. Or something like that." Kagerou attempted to get the question out of her mind.

"What? I don't get it."

"Uh… you know you shouldn't push yourself. I mean, even I can't remember my own childhood memories and sometimes I just remember them all of a sudden." Kagerou smiled nervously at her.

"Of course you wouldn't. You're probably more than 100 years old." Kagerou stared at her, lost for words. Suddenly they heard a voice from the outside.

"Found you…" The voice said in a singsong, menacing way.

Moriko turned her head to side then to Kagerou. "Did you hear that?" Kagerou nodded as Moriko stood up quickly. "It must be the enemy. They've caught up already."

"Better wake up then." Kagerou said as she pat Moriko's shoulder.

"Will you… lend me your strength?" Moriko asked politely.

"No way." Kagerou spat back quickly in a casual manner.

"What?"

"I will if you need it though." Kagerou grinned and disappeared

* * *

Moriko opened her eyes and found herself slumped on a tree branch. She blinked a few times before she could see her surroundings clearly. She stood up slowly but carefully while rubbing her eyes.

"Yo." Moriko turned around quickly and saw her pursuer standing lazily on another offshoot with a wide smirk. Moriko knew it was the more active brother, Sakon, because she remembered that he was the one who wore the red beaded necklace. "Oi, don't you think it's a little dangerous dozing off in the middle of a battle?" Sakon sneered at Moriko.

"You sure like to talk a lot, don't you?" Sakon frowned. "I hate talkative men. They're pathetic." Moriko grew her hair as a strong gust of wind rustled the leaves hovering over them. Several blue streaks ran down her black tresses while she prepared herself in a fighting stance. "Let's finish this quickly alright? I want to catch up with my teammates." Moriko flipped her hair over her shoulder and stared directly into Sakon's eyes.

"Okay, okay. But don't faint or else it'll be boring." Sakon chuckled maniacally, black squiggles covering his pale skin.

"Hmph."

--

**Rewritten: May 8, 08**

This was hella hard to rewrite. Comments are… love? xD


	7. Fathom

**Chapter 7: Fathom**

Sakon makes the first attack, eager to finish the job in a second. He activated his cursed seal and jumped to a branch closer to Moriko. "Don't think I'll go easy on you." Sakon smirked at her and Moriko just glared back at him.

"I wasn't asking for anything--" Moriko's quick reflexes saved her from Sakon's powerful kick. _"S-strong!" _Moriko winced at the pain on her forearm and expected a bruise forming already. _"He still has that much strength after fighting with Kiba?"_

Moriko wrapped her hair around Sakon's leg and flung him against a tree. She quickly dug her hand in her pocket and squirmed her fingers until she got a handful of the material inside. Moriko strew the seeds in her hand below her. It landed on the soil and on random branches. _This might be tougher than I thought._

Sakon blinked when Moriko clenched both of her fists and whispered something to herself. "I'll crush you." He flinched as he suddenly saw two gigantic vines on both of his sides and several smaller ones sprouting from the ground and boughs. They slithered around Sakon's body and tried to squeeze the life out of him. Moriko ignored Sakon's growl in agony and worried more on the situation she was entangled in.

"I have to knock him out before he gets the chance to attack. Once he has the chance to assault, he'll make sure I won't have the opportunity to strike back." Moriko could feel a bead of sweat roll down her spine. Sakon struggled to break free as she tightened her clenched fist to control the vines' force.

Moriko blinked when Sakon stopped struggling and suddenly shot her a contemptuous smile. She saw a flash slice across the vines before they fell down on the ground with a loud thump. "Taren ken!" Sakon advanced on her with his agile multiple punches. Moriko was startled but was able to duck, only to find out that nothing passed above her head. She felt the branch she was standing on shake a little.

"Heh." Moriko quickly turned her head and saw that her opponent had purposely landed beside her. Sakon delivered an asphyxiating kick to her stomach before she could even react. Moriko hit her back painfully against the trunk and Sakon pressed on with a kunai threatening her throat. "Too weak…" Sakon whispered in her ear.

"_Oh geez…" _Moriko sighed inwardly and gasped for the air that was taken out by the kick carefully, avoiding pressing her flesh against the sharp edges of the metal on her skin.

--

An hour and a half had passed already and both ninjas were down on the ground, out of breath. Moriko hung from a branch and dropped herself down on a lower offshoot. She looked at the fresh bruises on her arms and legs and felt the cut in her neck widen and a new gash on her cheek open up. Blood trickled down and Moriko wiped it with a handkerchief.

Sakon was on a higher branch, kneeling down on one knee. He wiped off the blood at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at it. "Damn it… I inhaled too much of her poisonous gas." Sakon hadn't known that Moriko was capable of emitting deadly gas and accidentally inhaled a lungful of it while captured in her tresses. He had only found out about it when he started coughing up blood and realized that he was in a genjutsu.

He glowered down on Moriko and saw green chakra emanating from her hand. The lacerate on her skin healed and closed up. "A medic-nin…" Sakon scowled and slammed a fist on the wood he was kneeling on. Moriko jumped off from her branch and landed beside Sakon. She crouched down and extended her leg to her side, attempting to knock Sakon's feet.

Sakon evaded it easily but he was caught off-guard when Moriko brought her body upside down and twirled her body, bringing her legs into a series of spinning kicks. Her feet hit Sakon on the head and pushed him back a few meters away. Moriko took the chance to lengthen her hair and capture Sakon again but he was sharp enough to expect that and threw several shurikens to cut her hair.

Sakon brought out a kunai and ran straight to Moriko's direction. She was confused whether it was a direct attack or a diversion. "He can't be using a kunai for a direct attack but if this is a diversion… where would he come?" Moriko wondered to herself as she scuffled through her weapons' pockets. She expected to get a kunai and a smoke bomb but when she brought her hand out she realized she got her fan instead. Moriko made a face as she looked at her fan and then to Sakon's smirking face.

"Heh."

Moriko couldn't make a move, as Sakon was already a strand of hair's breadth away from her. Her reflex brought the fan in front of her as a shield. The kunai pierced through it and Sakon sent her flying with a kick to her side. Moriko rubbed her hips with an annoyed expression and took off the kunai from her fan. "I really like this fan, it was pretty expensive too."

"Too bad, maybe you can get one in the next world." Sakon remarked sarcastically. _"There's no need for me to go to level two. I can beat her with just this." _He told himself with pride while looking at his spotted stained hands. _"I need to catch up with Ukon."_ Sakon quirked an eyebrow as he saw Moriko slowly stand up then fall on her knees.

"What the— not now!" Moriko hissed. "I'm losing chakra already but I know I still had a small amount left." She whispered to herself in confusion. "Kagerou… Kagerou! She can help me." Moriko called out to Kagerou hysterically in her head.

"Kagerou! Hey—"

"What?! Can you tone it down a little?" Kagerou snapped back irately.

"Sorry but I need your help right now."

"Huh?" Kagerou slurred.

"Lend me some chakra."

"I already did." Kagerou stated casually.

"What?" Kagerou sighed at her.

"Why do you think you've been able to fight back this long? I gave you just the right amount of chakra so your body can contain it. You used your chakra carelessly and I bet you didn't even noticed how much you were using. Because of the large amount you carried, you've unconsciously drained it. You need to control yourself a little."

"We'll talk later, can you just please—"

"Fine." Kagerou gave out a defeated sigh. Moriko felt something cold touch her wrists before she blinked from a flash of light.

"Amazing…" Moriko breathed, feeling the cascading chakra in her veins. "Thanks."

"No more chances." Kagerou said sternly.

Moriko blinked and looked around for the enemy. She sighed out of relief, thankful she was not killed while pleading Kagerou for help. She jumped as she heard a devilish chuckle behind her. "Welcome back." Moriko turned around at the annoyingly familiar voice with a glare.

"You had the chance to kill me. Why didn't you do it?"

"Hm…" Sakon tapped his chin playfully with his index finger. "I just thought it wouldn't be fun."

"I'm Azami Moriko." Sakon quirked an eyebrow at her. "I just realized we've been fighting without knowing each other's name. You might've heard it a while ago from Kiba but I figured you would've been too stupid to remember it." Sakon frowned at this. "I'm gonna finish you here and now. At the very least… you should know the name of the person who's gonna send you to your death." Moriko smirked at him.

Sakon laughed at her. "You're pretty cocky but I think you've got it the other way around." He pointed his finger at her mockingly. "You're the one who should know MY name." Moriko rolled her eyes.

"Shall we start again?"

* * *

The fight has been going on for almost an hour and Sakon had already decided that he needed to activate level two. He thought things would've been much easier if Ukon was with him, they are strongest when they are together. Moriko jumped back away from Sakon and both gasped for air. They were both worn out and yet neither of them refuses to go down.

"_What's with this guy?" _Moriko was impressed by how much chakra he had. She even needed a fill from Kagerou in the first round while he was going on his own.

"_Maybe I can do a surprise attack while she's out of breath. It'll be harder for her to move that way." _Sakon disappeared from his spot and reappeared behind Moriko who tried to evade him as quickly as she could with little air. _"That's right, run 'till you're out of air."_

"This is bad…" Moriko whispered to herself. Her face grew pale at the same time as the leaves surrounding her slowly dried out. Her instincts told her Sakon was running behind her and desperately grew her hair in an attempt to capture him.

"Shit!" Sakon cursed under his breath for being caught off-guard while her hair quickly bond him. The deadly scent immediately wafted through his nose even though he was trying his best to hold his breath. Sakon struggled to bring his hand to his nose but failed.

"Don't struggle too much or you'll inhale more." Sakon shot her a death glare with groggily. His vision became blurry and was followed by dizziness. Moriko unbound him, a few minutes later, standing on a bough. Sakon couldn't stand properly and swayed while moving. He felt his knees shake in weakness.

Even in his vulnerable state, he approached Moriko slowly like a drunk. He dug his hand in his pocket to find an explosive tied to a kunai. "You're making things easier for me." Moriko said, apparently amused.

"Shut up…" Sakon slurred. He brought out the kunai he had wanted in a last ditch attempt to grab her and never let her go before thrusting his explosive kunai into her stomach.

"_I'll knock him out with one last attack." _Moriko thought, deciding where to attack him.

Unaware that he was stepping on Moriko's hair, he slipped and fell off when she moved back and leaned her head to relieve the stress on her neck. Moriko unconsciously lunged at him and quickly pulled him back on his feet. She exerted too much force and lost her balance. Still locked hands with Sakon, she inevitably grabbed him down with her.

They landed on a lower branch with a loud and obviously painful thud, Sakon's limp body on top of Moriko's. He quickly carried himself up but paused and stared when he saw Moriko's hitai-ate tied to her necklace, that was identical to his, like a pendant, leaving them in a compromising position. Sakon blinked and looked up at Moriko who was eyeing him suspiciously. Both looked at each other in awkward silence.

Moriko thought back on what she did and mentally slapped herself. _"I saved an enemy from dying?! I could've just let him fall and catch up with the others." _Moriko's cheeks became tinged with light pink, much to Sakon's surprise. "Gah!" Moriko pushed Sakon back violently. "Get off, freak!" Sakon leaned against the trunk, panting, the poison he had inhaled still wandering in his body.

"Shut… up. You shouldn't have… grabbed my… hand in the… first place." Sakon said in between heavy breaths while digging his hand inside the pouch that was tied to his leg. He brought out a small bottle and drank from it. _"This will help stop the effects of the poison."_

"That antidote won't help." Moriko said calmly while looking at Sakon's helpless body.

"You… watch." Sakon gazed at Moriko's necklace before looking up at her face. "Where'd you get… your necklace?" He asked while he shifted his body with a grunt. Moriko lifted the red beaded necklace to her face and looked at it.

"_Hm… where did I get this? All I know is that I've had it with me for as long as I can remember." _ Moriko scrutinized it before shifting her eyes lazily to Sakon. "I don't know, can't remember. Why are you asking?"

"… I just noticed our necklaces are… identical to each other." Sakon heaved heavily before coughing up blood.

"I don't know why you're talking about this but many necklaces are identical. It's strange to hear that from someone who's about to die, I told you that antidote won't work." Moriko stepped back a little, trying to be careful from being too close to her enemy.

"Check the beads if there's something written on it." Confusion was written all over Moriko's face, she wondered why her enemy was having a casual conversation with her. She wondered if she was playing into the enemy's trap despite her sureness of the poison flowing inside his body. But she did what he told her to do out of curiosity.

Moriko removed the necklace around her neck and scanned its every bead. Sakon stared at her intently, as if analyzing every bit of her face, while she was busy with her necklace. Sakon wondered what was wrong with him. He wasn't acting like himself. He pondered on the familiarity Ukon had spoken about earlier; it was almost like a déjà vu. The suggestion of checking the beads came from an unusual feeling of knowing her for a long time.

"Ah…" Moriko muttered which Sakon barely caught. She brought a particular bead closer to her face. It was darker than the other beads and small, barely readable, letters were engraved on it. "Something's written on it…" Moriko whispered to herself but audible enough for Sakon to hear.

Sakon shifted his body uncomfortably, looking at his own necklace. "This is hard to read…" Moriko squinted at the bead. "Whoa…" Moriko said under her breath a few minutes later.

"What?" Sakon asked weakly. He was ten times paler that he usually was. _"Damn, I feel so weak. But… at least I'm not dead. When I get back I'm gonna ask Kabuto to do a better job with the antidotes."_

"Why is my name here?" Moriko looked at Sakon. "I've never seen this before."

"Knew it…" He mumbled to himself. _"My and Sakon's name are on the beads as well."_

"What?"

"Nothing."

"How did you know there was something here?"

"I don't know, it was just—" Moriko's eyes suddenly went black and collapsed. "What the-"

"Oh God, this again?" Moriko looked around and found herself in the previously dark space. Her head throbbed and with every hammering pain, Moriko saw fragments of what seemed like a lost memory.

--

"Here, you can have this." The lad held out his hand with a crimson beaded necklace on it.

"What's this?"

"A necklace."

"I know what it is. I mean… what for?"

"Well… if you look closely, there's one bead that's darker from the others. Your name's engraved on that bead." He explained nonchalantly.

"Why?"

"I… I just thought that if we get separated, you'll always remember the person you owe a lot. You won't be able to run away because I'll know you're Moriko if you're wearing that. That way, you won't have the time to be lonely about anything because you gotta worry about paying back all the good stuffs I did for you." He "indirectly" explained the reason while looking away.

**Flicker…**

"Run! Keep running!" He shouted.

"But I--"

**Flicker…**

Moriko ran out of the house, feeling heavier with the guilt and anguish she brought with her. She clutched the necklace close to heart and mumbled, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry… Sakon."

--

Moriko woke up from her stupor and looked around quickly. "Where is he?" She stood up and leapt from tree to tree, trying to follow the trail of Sakon's faint scent. "Idiot didn't kill me again." Moriko sighed, pressing the beads in her hand.

"This remembering thing just gets me all the time. It's worse than I expected… why him?"

--

**Rewritten: May 21, 08**

Lame action shiznits, forgive me.


	8. Trust

**Chapter 8: Trust**

Moriko ran as fast as her legs and feet were capable of, looking for Sakon and hoping to find her companions along the way as well. She then heard a muffled conversation somewhere deep within the woods. Moriko tried her best to follow it and found herself on the ground. Moriko saw three figures and decided to hide herself in a bush a few meters away.

Moriko squinted at the figures before letting out a small gasp. "Kiba! Finally—Is that Kankuro? What's he doing here?" Someone else stood several feet away from them. "It's him—wait, no. He doesn't have the necklace… but he definitely looks like him." Moriko didn't realize that she was staring at Sakon's older twin Ukon.

Moriko felt the murderous aura enveloping the area but she watched intently as she waited for the right time for her to come out. Kankuro's puppet appeared behind Ukon and locked him in its barrel-like body. Its limbs, including the head, disconnected from its body and turned into long daggers. Moriko frowned when she saw drops of dark liquid forming at its tips. "Poison…"

The daggers advanced towards the barrel and Moriko realized the fate of the ninja inside it. She jumped out from her hiding spot and hoped that it would distract Kankuro. "Wait, stop!" The daggers were too fast to stop in time and Moriko did the most reckless thing in the entire mission. She pushed the barrel to aside and, not being able to move fast enough, took its dangerous place. She managed to dodge two of it but barely on the other three that found its way to cut her at the sides of her stomach, leg and arm.

The blades Moriko had dodged didn't stop and headed straight towards the barrel with a powerful thrust in the slits where it originally was. Moriko grimaced when she heard Ukon's scream of agony. Kankuro quickly cut the string chakra that was connected to his puppet and its blades. Kiba ran to her bloody figure and brought her up carefully to his arms.

"What're you doing?!" Kiba yelled at her, frantically placing his hand on her wounds. "Kankuro! Those daggers were poisoned right?" Kiba looked up at Kankuro with a horrified expression.

"Are you alright?" Kankuro asked and Moriko replied with a weak nod. "Why did you do that?" He asked again while searching for the antidote in his pockets.

"Nothing… uh… personal reasons." Kankuro raised an eyebrow at her. Kiba grabbed the bottle from Kankuro's hands and brought it to Moriko's lips. She coughed up blood, causing her gashes to squeeze out more of the same crimson liquid, before quickly but carefully drinking the antidote.

"What?" Kiba asked. There was a quick silence before Moriko spoke again. "I just wanted to… finish him myself."

"Well, you won't be able to do that anymore because of your recklessness." Kiba said calmly, running a hand comfortingly on her back. "Is the antidote working?" Moriko nodded.

"Yes, I feel better now—"

"Of course it's working. I made it for my own poison after all." Kankuro snapped.

"Besides, even without being wounded I, most likely Shikamaru and the others as well, would've forbid it."

"But—"

"Personal intentions are not to interfere with a ninja's mission." Moriko frowned she knew he was right. Moriko looked back at the barrel where the twins were locked in. He was stabbed in a vital area but if she could make it in time she could still save him from his wounds and blood loss.

"Kiba, please. Just let me…"

"But he's dead—"

"Not yet. Not until you let me finish the job." Kiba eyed her wounds with a worried face.

"Can you move…?"

"Yes!" Moriko jumped up from Kiba's comfort and flailed her arms frantically. "I am perfectly--! Ehhh" Moriko helplessly and reluctantly fell into Kiba's arms who quickly tied a cloth around her open lacerate. "Not fine…" She hissed. Moriko already suffered from blood loss and she knew that moving too much with a condition like that would give her a pounding headache and a blurry vision.

"I thought you said you were fine." Kiba raised an eyebrow at her.

"I am." Moriko weakly placed a hand over her wounds one by one and emitted the green healing chakra. "I've closed them already but the insides are not completely healed yet. I can't do much more of this until I rest." Kiba looked up at Kankuro and gave him a nod. Kankuro scooped up Moriko in his arms.

"Eh? Kankuro, what're you doing?" Moriko asked with a tint of panic in her voice.

"We're going."

"B-but I just said—"

"He's dead already, believe me. It's my puppet we're talking about." Moriko tried to wriggle out of his arms.

"Hey, stop it!" Kiba held her wrists forcefully trying to stop her from childish movements.

"Put me down right now! If you don't I'll keep doing this on our way and die." Kankuro breathed an exasperated sigh and carefully put her back down on the ground. "Please, just leave me on my own for now. I promise I'll catch up. You should find Naruto and the others before it's too late. I just want to…" Moriko paused and glanced at the blood-bathed barrel. "Reassure myself."

"What is wrong with you?" Kiba stared menacingly at Moriko, obviously vexed. "That's ridiculous. You're acting so immature right now. Leave you alone? Look at yourself. At least let one of us stay with you for safety."

"I think you should go together. I'm not the only injured." Moriko stared at the bloodstains on Kiba's shirt. "And what if they're injured? You need assistance."

"I'm sure Temari and Gaara saved their asses already so there's no need to worry about them." Kiba smiled.

"See? We're only waiting for you."

"But still--!" Moriko frowned and immaturely snapped at him.

"Stop being so obstinate and selfish!" Kiba argued back.

"Enough!" Kankuro cut in between the two. "Let her be, Kiba. If something happens to you we won't be responsible for it and it will be recorded as disobeying your orders and responsibility." Moriko looked down and sighed inwardly. "But in our part… we'd want you to be careful and stop acting so childish at such a crucial time."

"Thanks." Moriko grinned up at him. "I'll keep that in mind." Kankuro turned to his barrel-like puppet and started maneuvering it open with the chakra string coming out of his fingertips.

"I won't forgive you if you die out of internal bleeding or something ridiculous like that." Moriko chuckled.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I won't die."

"You said yourself that you only closed them up but the insides are still not healed, which means you won't suffer blood loss but internal bleeding. If you don't catch up in about two hours, I'll come back myself and drag your ass." Kiba crossed his arms on his chest.

"Huuh? A time limit?" Thump! The conversing pair looked at Kankuro's direction and followed the chakra strings from his fingers. Sakon's body lay limp on the ground like a rag completely soaked in blood.

"Well there he is. Dead." Kiba said surely to himself but with an intention to rub it in Moriko's face.

"He's not dead, he's just barely alive." Moriko huffed.

"Kiba." Kankuro had finished assembling Kuroari. Kiba nodded and Kankuro jumped up ahead on the boughs. Kiba glanced back at Moriko and followed Kankuro. Moriko looked at the almost undetectable body several meters away from her. She limped her way closer to the lifeless body, leaving drops of her blood draw a trail behind her.

Dropping her herself beside Sakon, Moriko weakly ran her hand to the hem of his shirt and slowly pulled it up to check on his injuries. "Tsch. Deep." Moriko frowned and looked around. _"I need to find a place to treat him. He'll die if I wait any longer." _She pressed her thumb on his wrist and tried to feel his dying pulse. "Shit--" Moriko quickly pressed her ear against Sakon's chest and swallowed.

It was a very slow and faint thud. So soft that Moriko thought for a second that she was just hearing things. Closing her eyes, Moriko breathed a sigh of relief. Fluttering her eyes open, she lifted her hand to her face. "I can still… maybe, make a bunshin. No, I'll try making a couple of them." Locking her hands together and forming a fixed seal, Moriko concentrated and waited. And waited. She thought her heart skipped a beat when she heard multiple poofing sounds behind her.

"Thank God!" She exclaimed to herself, her arms dropping down to her sides. "I don't think I could ever carry him in this condition." She sighed. Moriko looked up at her clones and told them, "Find me a place near a river or just a place that has clean water. Hurry, Kankuro's poison spreads fast." The clones disappeared in a flash and Moriko felt that waiting for them to come back was the longest five minutes of her life.

Moments later, they reappeared in front of her and pointed to a direction. Moriko's vision started to blur and dizziness knocked her head like a bulldozer. "Take us there and please carry that." She pointed weakly at Sakon's body, who she referred to as a thing, with a crooked, trembling finger. The other clone took Moriko's arm around her shoulders and supported her by the waist.

"I found a girl's body. Half of her body is buried under some logs." The clone supporting her said. Moriko looked at her then to the other one who was carrying Sakon easily on her shoulder. "You pick her up. We'll meet you in the place you guys found." The clone rolled its eyes before disappearing. She limped the whole way to the "place" while cursing Kankuro's deadly weapons. Her slowness made her feel like she was being left behind by time.

Moriko felt a glint of hope in her when she saw her clone standing beside a small cottage. They approached them and Moriko could see a headful of pink over the clone's shoulder. It took her blood-drained self a couple of seconds before realization smacked her in the face. _"She's one of Sakon's teammates."_

"This is what we found." The clone said opening the door for Moriko and the other clone.

"Maybe this was made by some ninjas or ANBUs to serve as a resting place in the middle of this forest." The clone carefully placed the two bodies on the wooden floor. Moriko grabbed a pail she found at the corner of the room and dropped it noisily on the floor. The force on the ground creaked a well-concealed, classic, wooden trapdoor open. Moriko picked up the pail and handed it to her clone as the other disappeared with a poof. "Water." She looked back at the trap door and crawled towards it. "It's a pretty big for a small place like this."

Moriko jumped in it and landed with a crash on the floor. Rubbing her rear, she looked around on the floor to look for the object that was in her way. She saw a small, lighter figure a few feet away from her. She squinted her eyes before she exclaimed to herself. "First aid kit!" Moriko scrambled towards it and opened the small white box.

"Mhm… bandages, medicines, blood restoring pills… this is almost perfect for this situation." Moriko lifted an eyebrow at her serendipity. After a couple of minutes, Moriko clambered out and saw her clone arrive at the door holding a pail filled with water. It disappeared the same time Moriko had crawled her way out of the underground room.

"First aid, pair of sleeping bags, a lamp, a few weapons and a hygiene kit." Moriko mentally sweat dropped. "Maybe this was a camping cottage." She opened the hygiene kit and found small towels, an extra shirt, and a pair of slippers. "Lucky" She looked over her shoulders then slid the box across the floor beside Sakon.

"_This is gonna take huge toll on me." _Moriko thought as she lifted Sakon to her arms. She brought the pill to Sakon's mouth and cupped water from the pail with her hand to push the medicine down his throat. Moriko grabbed a towel and wet it with water then used it to wipe off the blood around his lacerates. "Damn, that's deep."

"I have to squeeze out the last bits of chakra I have left to get the poison out." Moriko shook her head and formed a bubble with her hand. It was transparent and light greenish; you could probably call it a chakra bubble. She placed it over Sakon's stomach and then slowly penetrated it with the chakra bubble.

Though almost dead, the pain must've been excruciatingly painful for Sakon had squirmed a little while Moriko concentrated on the bubble she was controlling inside his body. She could feel beads of sweat roll down to her chin as she concentrated on accumulating all the poison in Sakon's body. The chakra attracted all toxins in his body and when it could no longer magnetize any, Moriko lifted it out.

"Wow" Moriko eyed the blobs of purple toxins floating around the bubble. "How much poison did he put in that puppet of his?" Moriko brought the bubble to a small container beside her. "Now I have to mend the damaged cells." She placed both hands over Sakon's punctured flesh. Slowly, the organs inside bubbled up and healed back like it was never pierced by a puppet's limb.

After the organs, the flesh inside followed until the skin itself was closing up. Moriko bandaged the newly healed flesh as it can tear open if not taken care of properly when it's still delicate and fresh. She smiled at her work and leaned back against the wall. She wiped her bloodied hands with a new wet towel and wiped her sweat with another towel.

Moriko looked over to her side and observed the pink haired kunoichi's body. "Cuts and bruises only. Maybe she wouldn't be able to move her lower body for a while since it was buried under those gigantic logs. But just to make sure blood is still flowing through her veins… " Moriko placed her index finger on Tayuya's chest, where the heart is, and released a bullet-like chakra to startle the heart muscles and make it pump regularly.

Moriko smiled when she saw Tayuya's chest rise and fall slowly but regularly. Moriko winced and lied down on the ground holding the side of her stomach. "Looks like this gash is pretty deep as well." She sighed and placed her hand on it. "Last…" Healing herself was not much of a problem as it was just a laceration. Moriko concentrated on mending the lacerated flesh as the skin was already closed earlier.

"Yessss…" Moriko slurred with a small chortle. She felt proud for a job well done. Her eyes drooped slowly as mumbled, "I'm tired." And with that she completely let the darkness in her eyes envelop her in a deep slumber.

--

**Rewritten: June 18 2008**

Right, it was originally Ukon a while ago? And then it became Sakon. Let's just say Ukon slept and Sakon's body took over before they got injured. Okay? Because, well, I wanted it to be Sakon and not Ukon xD Oh yeah… about the sudden changes of the line thingies… you see I'm using Mac OS and for some reason I can't put those lines. I was able to do so when I borrowed a PC but it's not with me anymore so I started using dashes. If anyone knows how to fix that shit, please tell me 8D


End file.
